Mother Earth Mother Board

The transcendence of surface-hugging technologies in transportation had a direct analogue in communication. Since 1844, when Samuel Morse had tapped out the question WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT in the world’s first telegram, wires had been a vital instrument of politics. Cables crossed the seas, acting as the nervous systems of large empires. The British

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When I picked up this WIRED, it wasn't just about computers. It was about this world. On the other side of the computer world you could get to from anywhere, and that world was full of knowledge and ideas and people.Dave Hughes who was working on wiring up the Internet. And there's this quote, “My life's mission is to hook up the 5.5 billion brains... See more

The internet is, after all, a physical presence. Its tubes cross the ocean. Its servers fill up deserts in Arizona. Too often we’re not prepared to visualize it in that way. The photographer Trevor Paglen has done an essential project where he dives into the ocean and tracks the cables snaking along the sea floor. He shoots portraits of Miami Beach

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I’ve recently begun to visit the internet. There, I’ve found cement, metal gates, water tanks, miles of solar farms, buzzing wires, fiber optic trenches, and towers. Data centers, often hidden from the everyday ‘user,’ house rows of blinking servers containing the vast contents of our digital lives. Inside these electronics lie conductive materials... See more